Don't Say ''What?'' ''Eh?'' ''What did you say?'' 28 Common English Phrases, Words and Idioms.

Hi and welcome back to Love English I'm Leila and in today's lesson I am going to help you broaden your vocabulary in one very specific area today i want you to stop saying uh what what did you say can you repeat that please yes i'm going to help you broaden your vocabulary and avoid using these phrases nothing wrong with them other than the fact sometimes they can be a little bit rude and of course sometimes you feel like you're being stupid because you didn't hear someone and truly it doesn't matter whether you're a native speaker or a non-native speaker sometimes you will not always catch what was said you will not always understand everything you heard whether because you were distracted thinking about something else or of course as a non-native speaker perhaps you're listening to someone that speaks too fast now today's lesson i'm going to dedicate to one special person in my life today's lesson is dedicated to my husband he watches my lessons so i won't tell him that i've done this but i'm going to explain why my husband has a tendency to say and it drives me crazy it's the tone that he says it in as well so rather than saying sorry darling what did you say all i get is er and it drives me crazy so please darling pay attention to this lesson while you're driving on your way to work and try using some of these expressions instead so if you don't want to sound rude like my husband when he goes or if indeed you simply don't want to sound silly stupid like you don't understand what's being said then these expressions are really going to help you achieve that and of course it's going to avoid saying nothing because i'm sure some of you sometimes won't understand what's being said but you don't want to ask what they're saying or to get them to repeat themselves for the fear of sounding stupid or for them thinking that you're stupid which is definitely not the case okay so let's start with five very short and simple phrases or words to basically make sure that you understand or you can get someone to repeat themselves the first and most simple word and indeed a word that is really used most commonly by natives in these situations is sorry but the intonation needs to be a little bit more specific you want a down up intonation so it would sound something like this sorry sorry yes especially kind of having that slightly perplexed confused look on your face will help express that you didn't quite understand what they were saying or that you didn't hear what they were saying now sorry might sound very simple and maybe a bit basic but in fact it is the most natural and native way to ask to check to clarify what had been said and indeed you'll notice with many of these expressions we'll add this either to the beginning or the end of the sentence just to improve our politeness and again emphasize that we didn't catch what was said or we need it clarifying so sorry sorry sorry there we go simple but effective number two a little bit more colloquial meaning relaxed informal but not slang come again come again come again what was that yes come again basically means say that again repeat yourself i didn't quite get what you were saying so you could again add the word sorry sorry come again there we go simple come again just to reiterate it is that down up intonation it implies that you're not saying sorry i've done something or come again to the restaurant but that it's a question down up intonation is referring to a question form so whether you're saying where do you live where do you live or sorry come again you are implying you are emphasizing that this is a question and not a statement number three a little bit more formal a little bit more polite something that i would use perhaps with someone i'm not familiar with perhaps a work colleague that i don't know very well or indeed in a supermarket perhaps when i'm asking a question excuse me excuse me again emphasizing that it's a question we're asking and inviting them to repeat themselves it is a little bit more formal and certainly very polite so come again you would probably use with friends with family maybe but excuse me perhaps in a more formal environment where you want to make sure you're sounding very polite with people that you might not know very well number four i think i've already said this in the video to catch now to catch is obviously referring to like a ball someone throwing a ball to you but when you say sorry i didn't catch that sorry i didn't catch that you're saying you didn't quite either understand or hear what they said there could be loud music people can't hear you and someone might say sorry i didn't catch that or i didn't catch you so there we've got a very good example of perhaps a more colloquial informal but certainly not rude way to ask someone to repeat what they said that you didn't quite catch what they said now number five is quite formal i would say that it's actually one that is less used these days but was perhaps encouraged more by my grandmother's generation to say pardon or indeed remember that down up intonation pardon pardon in the same way that we would use the intonation for sorry or come again we would have pardoned and this is a very polite very formal way of saying i didn't hear you or could you repeat that now you could add to this phrase and you could say i beg your pardon i beg your pardon but be careful with this because it can sound not rude but like you are not happy with someone that you want to tell them off reprimand them for something they have said or done so if someone's rude to you and says oh i don't know your clothes are very ugly you might say i beg your pardon i beg your pardon but when you don't hear what they say when you want to get them to clarify something to say it again i beg your pardon i beg your pardon hear that down up intonation and again kind of leaning in body language is quite important here guys lean in you might even want to kind of put your hand behind your ear just to emphasize i beg your pardon you didn't quite understand what they said i think this is probably a little bit excessive simply leaning in and showing that you're particularly interested in trying to listen to what they're saying or trying to understand what they said i beg your pardon i beg your pardon there we go but again just be careful that you don't use quite a firm strong intonation because it could sound like you're not happy with that person moving on and thinking particularly about someone who is a non-native speaker trying to understand maybe a native speaker who's speaking quite fast these expressions are going to help you ask them to slow down or indeed if they're speaking quite quietly yes we can ask them to speak louder but we don't want to say please speak slower please speak louder this isn't a natural way that we would ask this in english we have some very fixed expressions for this purpose number six whether you're on the phone or in person sorry could you speak up a little bit or sorry could you speak up a bit so to speak up rather than speak louder we would ask someone to speak up perhaps you can't hear them because they've got a very quiet voice i've had this on zoom recently with some of my students and i'd have to say to them sorry could you speak up a little bit could you speak up a little bit so that's number six number seven again perhaps emphasizing that you didn't quite understand because maybe they were speaking a bit fast or it was a very complicated thing that they were explaining sorry i didn't follow sorry i didn't follow and to follow means that you're basically able to go behind them and listen and carefully understand what they're saying so to say i didn't follow first of all it's emphasizing that you didn't quite understand everything not that you didn't understand anything but that some of the points that they made or things that they referred to you weren't able to follow to understand and that could be because of the complexity of the topic or simply that they were speaking very very fast so sorry i didn't follow sorry i didn't follow they will know instinctively to repeat or to summarize in a shorter way what they have said similarly you could say i'm struggling to follow sorry i'm struggling to follow would you mind slowing down a bit could you slow down a bit would you mind slowing down a bit could you slow down a bit so there again i'm struggling i'm struggling to follow to struggle is to find something difficult so explaining that you need them to slow down a bit or indeed sorry i'm struggling to follow could you speak up a bit is again emphasizing that you just need them to repeat what they've said and that you need them to do it a little bit slower or a little bit louder it really is that simple and again we're emphasizing that we're trying to be polite here by using these indirect questions would you mind could you you're being much more polite so in a more formal environment these expressions would also work very well okay we are already on number nine but this time we are looking at expressions to help clarify to make sure that you understand and check what someone said so that you don't think you know what they said but you are sure you know what they said or indeed if you just haven't got a clue you don't understand what they said at all and you need them to repeat it or indeed explain it in a slightly more concise simple way let's have a look now number nine we could also use that great verb follow sorry i'm not following or sorry i didn't follow again we wouldn't necessarily here need to say could you slow down a bit or could you speak up a bit but simply sorry i didn't follow meaning i don't understand so that one we can use both when we're asking someone to speak up or slow down or when we do not understand what has been said sorry i didn't follow sorry i'm not following now we could also specifically say what we didn't follow sorry i didn't follow what you said about sorry i didn't follow what you said about the project for next week sorry i didn't follow what you said about the past perfect continuous tense again specifying exactly what you didn't understand so that they can focus on that point and explain it to you again number 11 and 12 very very similar here and again this is referring to something specific that has been said sorry i'm not sure what you mean by sorry i'm not sure what you mean by having an in-depth discussion sorry i'm not sure what you mean by doing some research so again just emphasizing exactly what it is you are not sure about in the same way as i said number 12 i'm not sure i understand what you mean by i'm not sure i understand what you mean by so i'm not sure i understand what you mean by mixed conditionals or i'm not sure i understand what you mean by cohesive devices so this could be a specific word that you don't understand or indeed a concept that they have shared so sorry i'm not sure what you mean by or sorry i'm not sure i understand what you mean by there we go number 13 you could also use an adjective lost sorry i'm a bit lost i'm a bit lost here again you're not physically lost but you're lost in just basically your understanding of what is being spoken about what's being said so sorry i'm a bit lost and again you don't have to ask them to repeat themselves they will do this instinctively they will know that because you are lost not in your location but basically in your thoughts being able to understand and comprehend what's being said by saying i'm lost it should encourage the speaker to repeat or clarify what they have said okay number 14 and 15 are using some very common and colloquial verbs to catch and to get basically in these situations it's referring to understanding i didn't catch what you said i didn't catch what you said and again this could be because they were speaking too fast or because you simply didn't understand what they were saying i didn't catch what you said sorry i didn't catch what you said or get get means understand and get is of course one of the most commonly used verbs in the english language i didn't get what you mean by i didn't get what you mean by homogenization what is that referring to so rather than say i don't understand homogenization or i don't understand the word you used or what you said i didn't get what you mean by i didn't get what you mean by and again you're referring to one specific thing rather than saying you didn't understand everything you can just focus on something that has been said quite simply you could also say what do you mean by what do you mean by what do you mean by homogenization what do you mean by a decrease in profits so again you're asking for clarification and for them to expand on what they have said now if you're writing an email perhaps a correspondence and you didn't understand what was written or what was said in a meeting then you could use clarify clarify is a nice formal verb that works very well in both business situations formal situations and even academic could you clarify what you meant by could you clarify what you meant by needing to work more hours through the summer so specifically how many hours so you're understanding what they said or you could say could you clarify what you meant when you said could you clarify what you meant when you said and then give the statement or word so again in both these situations you could use them in a more formal polite way perfect for business english now if you're mid-conversation if someone is talking and they keep talking and you still don't understand what they're saying but you can't stop them and you don't want to be rude these phrases are going to help you interrupt them i'll start with the more informal expression down to the more formal expression so with friends you could use the phrase sorry to button sorry to butt in meaning sorry to interrupt but again if you let them keep talking and you're not understanding anything they say it's going to be very difficult to ask them to repeat everything by the time they finish so sorry to button but then you could ask them to clarify something or you could ask them what they meant by 20 the standard verb sorry to interrupt sorry to interrupt but would you mind speaking up a little bit so for whatever the reason whether they're speaking too fast too quietly or you just don't understand interrupting sorry to interrupt will help you stop them where they're speaking and ask them to repeat what they've said now the more formal version of these two expressions is to interject sorry to interject but sorry to interject but or could i just interject there for example if you're in a meeting and you want to interrupt someone because maybe you or others are finding them difficult to understand you could say could i just interject and ask you to speak up a little particularly useful if you're in a zoom call and sometimes in fact the audio doesn't work very well i've had that a few times so could i just interject and ask you to speak up a little could i just interject and ask you to clarify what you meant by so to interject is the more formal of those expressions fantastic for business situations now these next expressions use carefully they are more informal which means they could also be a little bit rude in the wrong situation some of these might be perfectly acceptable to use with close friends maybe even some members of your family your brother your sister your cousins not perhaps grandparents what are you on about what are you on about what are you on about where are we going what what's going on what are you on about again it does sound quite rude and i also wouldn't be very happy if my husband used this expression with me so honey er or what do you want about not very polite with your wife please don't use it but maybe with friends maybe in a joking way being a bit sarcastic what are you on about you know you're kind of saying you're laughing and saying they're not making much sense or you don't understand what they're saying in american english say what say what again very informal usually used with friends not in a business situation in british english we would probably say you are rather than you what yeah you are you what so yeah say what you are informal a little bit rude kind of just as bad as ah or what um maybe avoid using them don't use them in formal situations just with people you're very comfortable with and are unlikely to punch you if you sound rude now we've also got some fantastic creative idioms in english to help express that you don't understand something or indeed that you think somebody else didn't understand something my favorite expression is that went over my head that went over my head if someone's spoken about something or if you were in a meeting and you didn't understand or if it was something really complicated that someone was explaining a scientific formula a mathematical formula um the structure of third conditional then you could say wow that went over my head what i also like to do is the action like this so that went over my head right meaning it didn't go in my brain but over it i also and you will hear this sometimes used would go whoosh yeah whoosh like this basically is the idiom in a sound form so rather than say that went over my head you could come out of the meeting turn to a colleague and go whoosh like i didn't understand anything i did not get what he was saying so quite informal there you wouldn't want to use kind of idioms in a business situation but maybe with a close colleague if you're talking about something or you didn't understand the boss i can't make head nor tail of this i can't make head nor tail of this or i didn't make head or tail of what he was saying it could be something that someone said or something that you're reading it means that you don't understand i can't make head nor tale of this i can't make head no tale of what you're saying i don't understand it at all we're almost there two more idioms to go but this one i think is quite self-explanatory mud looks like this it's wet earth often something you can find in the uk when it's raining but when we say clear as mud it's a funny idiom it's expressing the fact that it wasn't clear because mud is not clear so clear as mud would be it was not clear i could not understand i did not understand what he was saying so if someone says did you understand that yes clear as mud you're being sarcastic you're being funny so again choose when you use these idioms carefully in the opposite we would have crystal clear so if you say something is crystal clear you're saying that it's very clear and you can see through it as crystals are a little bit different to mud there and finally this is an idiom that i have actually taught you recently but i'm going to include it again the last but one of my favorites it's all greek to me it's all greek to me meaning it's a foreign language that i do not understand and again this is not literal when someone's explaining something for example mathematical equations i do not understand maths at all i'm not very good at maths never was never will be but i might use this expression when someone's explaining pythagoras theorem it is all greek to me i do not understand what is being explained so there we have it expressions and words that you can use instead of er what what did you say can you repeat that rather than saying these expressions you can use some of these alternatives thinking as well about the situation that you find yourself in are you with friends are you with family is it a work business situation choose your expressions carefully and of course try commenting below try using some of these expressions putting them into a context why don't you tell me about a time that you were speaking with someone and they were speaking too quickly what could you have said to slow them down or a situation or maybe a grammar point an english lesson that you didn't understand how could you express this if you had the opportunity to do it again so thank you so much for watching if you would like more lessons like this then of course you can just click one of these and i hope you'll be back for more thank you so much for watching

Channel: Love English with Leila & Sabrah

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Keywords: Love English with Leila & Sabrah, Love English with Leila & Sabrah YouTube, YouTube Love English with Leila & Sabrah, learn English, love English, English, don't say, stop saying, English phrases, common English idioms, don't say what, don't say can you repeat that, don't say in English, stop saying what, stop saying in English, speak like a native, English native speaker, learn English phrases, alternative phrases, English expressions, how to say what in English

Id: l3-0BAQARPY

Length: 23min 7sec (1387 seconds)

Published: Fri Jul 10 2020